Object Literature
The portrait studies depict, in our opinion, the following figures:
– Demeter of Knidos
The Demeter of Knidos is a life-size, seated ancient Greek statue that was discovered in the port of Knidos, south-west Asia Minor (present-day Turkey). Now part of the British Museum’s collection, it is an impressive example of Hellenistic sculpture from around 350 BC.
– Arundel Head (Possibly Sophocles)
The Arundel Head is an Hellenistic bronze portrait of a dramatist or king from Asia Minor, now kept in the British Museum. Dating to the 2nd-1st centuries BC, the head once belonged to (and takes its name from) the famous English collector of classical antiquities, Thomas Howard, 21st Earl of Arundel.
– Artemis
Artemis was one of the most widely venerated of the Ancient Greek deities. Her Roman equivalent is Diana. Some scholars believe that the name, and indeed the goddess herself, was originally pre-Greek. Homer refers to her as Artemis Agrotera, Potnia Theron: “Artemis of the wildland, Mistress of Animals”. The Arcadians believed she was the daughter of Demeter.
– Capitoline Antinous
The Capitoline ‘Antinous’ is a marble statue of a young nude male found at Hadrian’s Villa, Tivoli, during the time when Conte Giuseppe Fede was undertaking the earliest concerted excavations there. It was bought before 1733 by Alessandro Cardinal Albani. To contemporaries it seemed to be the real attraction of his collection. The statue was bought by Pope Clement XII in 1733 and went on to form the nucleus of the Capitoline Museums, Rome, where it remains
– Dante’s Beatrice
Beatrice “Bice” di Folco Portinari) was a Florentine woman who has been commonly identified as the principal inspiration for Dante Alighieri’s Vita Nuova, and is also commonly identified with the Beatrice who appears as one of his guides in the Divine Comedy (La Divina Commedia) in the last book, Paradiso, and in the last four cantos of Purgatorio.
When grouped together this beautiful quintet sing very harmoniously and deliver superb decorative punch.